Learning to Live
by I Luvz cheese-its
Summary: After their parent's tragic death, sisters Violet, Dani, Amanda,& Julie must try and live on. But when eight strangers come crashing down one night, the girls must figure out how to send them back where they belong.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

*BEEP BEEP BEEP* My alarm clock sang from its perch on my dresser. "Shut up." I muttered groggily as i attempted to throw my pillow at it. It hit my dresser causing it to shake, but did that fix it? No.

I finally surrendered and staggered across my room to shut it off. By then I was wide awake, so I headed downstairs to have breakfast. My big sister Julie and my younger sister Violet were already sitting at the table munching on some cereal. "Mornin." I muttered "Right back atcha." Julie said cheerfully.

"Sleep well Dani?" Violet asked her sightless eyes staring at the wall. "Kinda I guess." I stated slowly. As I poured a cereal into my bowl my other sister, Amanda's alarm clock went off. After about 5 minutes it was still going. "God, Julie muttered "She could sleep through an atomic explosion."

After about 10 minutes Amanda staggered down the hall with Julie not to far behind. As I dumped the rest of my milk down the drain Julie told me to go get ready for school. Up in my room I pulled on a pink t-shirt and some faded jeans, my mother's old jeans. "HURRY UP WE'VE GOT 5 MINUTES!" Julie screamed. "AMANDA I'M TALKING TO YOU!" She added, loudly.

"Have a good day at school Dani." Julie called from the car "You too." I yelled back. I began walking to the doors of Witherman High School. _Another cruddy day at school. _Ithought warily_. Oh well guess I'll have to make the best of it._

As I staggered to my locker the warning bell rang _Crap! _I thought. My 1st period is all the way across the school _Guess I'm toast._ I began to make a run for it. I plopped down in my seat just as the bell rang. _Phew...I'm on time._ whoa, I'd never actually been on time before. My science teacher Mrs. Maltoleny (yeah it's a mouthful) waddled in slowly.

"Class," she began "As you all know the science fair is coming up." Everyone groaned, cept' me cause I'm a science geek. "So today," Mrs. Maltoleny added. "You will all be begining your science fair projects. Choose a subject and start your research." She babbled on and on but I didn't listen. I was already thinking up ideas for mine.

By the time she had handed out our information sheets I had already decided on amoebas. I quickly filled it out, turned it in then rushed of to second period.

**Yay! My first fanfic! Please rate and review!**


	2. Chapter 2

As I proggresed through the day, it beame worse. I spilled black paint on my favorite jeans in art, flunked my math test, got pummeled with dodgeballs in gym, and fell asleep during world history. By the time the bell rang I couldn't wait to get outta there. I ran into my best friend Randy on my way to the bus, a minor improvement to my mood. "Horrid day huh?" she asked as we boarded the bus. "Yep." I answered.

Since the fact that I live on the outskirts of town and it takes about an hour to get to my stop and the fact that Randy gets of before me, I usually nap on the bus. "Hey, wake me up when you get off, okay?" I told Randy as we sat down, me by the window. ''Sure no prob." she responded, and turned to talk to Jessica. The chattering of the other kids and the humming of the bus engine eventually lulled me to sleep.

~~Dream~~

I am standing in the field behind my house, I am sure of it because the ''big birch'' is there. It is really foggy and I think I hear men talking. I notice eight strangley dressed, faceless men there. I try to run up to them but as I seem to get closer, they get farther and farther away. They are shouting now, like someting is wrong. I turn a corner around a hill and they are all there, they each look up at me, there faces have appeared.

"Dani, wake up!" I feel myself being shaken by Randy. I open my eyes to see Randy geting off the bus. Sighing deeply I sat up, what had my dream meant? Did it have any meaning at all? As I pondered through these questions the bus turned a corner and screeched to a halt. I stood up, got off the bus, and walked home. "Julie, i'm home!" I yelled as I walked through the front door.

"Did you have a good day?" Violet asked as I passed her, she was sitting at the table coloring, once again her sightless eyes staring at the wall. "Not in particular.'' I huffed tossing my backpack down by the couch. "I'm sorry to hear that." Julie stated as she walked into the living room. "By the way, where's Amanda?" she asked, sitting on the couch beside me. "Down in the basement, boxing with the bag." Violet answered. Amanda is on her school wrestleing team, and next month she's going to compete in the state championship. "Julie, what's for dinner?" I asked changing the subject. "Spagetti." She answered, "Your favorite." she added, winking at me.

Amanda then came puffing up the stairs. Her short, curly blonde hair was pulled into a tight ponytail and she had the thick-frame glasses, plus her purple headband. "Can we start dinner now, i'm hungry." she whined. "Yea, we probably should." Julie agreed, checking the mantel clock I checked too 4:05 it read. We eat dinner early probably because it'll be 5:30 when we sit down and 6:15 before we finish. Julie then began asigning roles, Violet: set table, Amanda: prepare the sauce, Me: throw noodles at the wall, and Julie: cook noodles. I began to throw noodles, if they stuck, they were ready. As soon as Violet was done she picked up her braile book, "The Hobbit". I tried reading that once but I soon got bored with it. By the time we sat down it was 5:28 my family are realy slow eaters so it wasn't untill 6:02 we were finished.

After dinner we set about our usual evening activities. Violet sat on the couch with her book, Amanda dissapeared into the basement, _again_, Julie did the dishes, and I went up to my room to attempt my math homework. But my mind wasn't on dividing fractions (i'm in the low class) if anything my mind was not even on fractions. My gaze kept drifteing to the picture of my parents on my dresser until I realized that I had shut my math book and I was now staring at that same picture. As the tears threatened to spill out I heard the voices in my head's conversation._ Don't cry its weakness! _one jeered at me _Its okay Dani, everybody cries..._ the other whispered. I finally gave into the first voice, tossing my math book onto the floor I decided to do it in study hall in the morning.

I went downstairs and spent about two hours reading. Upon remembering the science fair I asked Julie if I could use the computer. "Sure, just don't stay up _too_ late, alright? Its already 9:55." I agreed and got onto the internet, searching _amobeas_, ocasionally jotting down a note or two. After about twenty minutes I started the actual report. I just sat there, the light from the computer was the only one in the entire house now (as i was the only one awake now). Just as I started dozing off, I heard a sickening crash, then a bang. I leaped up and ran into the hallway, running into the others. "What was that?!" Amanda asked as we hurried to the back door. Julie, griping her baseball bat tightly, opened the door.

At first, we saw nothing. But then eight men emerged from the darkness. I recognized them as the men from my dream.

**End of chapter peoples! I think its long enough to please you guys! This chappie is dedicated to the biggest LOTR fan out there, Nik! I do not own Lord of the rings! **


	3. Chapter 3

I stared at the men in disbelief. _Who are they? They seem...familiar._ Julie stepped forward "Can I help you all with anything?" ,she asked. One stepped forward, he had brown hair that went down to his shoulders and what looked like a short, stubby beard. "Where are we?" he asked. "Er, Tennesee. Ever heard of it?" Violet had answered his question this time, "I am unfamiliar with such a place, but we would be gratefull if you could provide some food and shelter for we are weary." my sisters and I all looked at each other. Julie nodded her head "Yes we can, come on in.'' she gestured towards the door. The man thanked us and led his group inside. Everyone but the old man marveled at our living room from the lamps to the kitchen apliances. Upon being able to see them better I noticed how strange they were. There was an old man in a greyish blue robe, four little hairyfooted boys, a tall blonde guy with pointy ears and unusually long hair, the other man I mentioned earlier, and a short, grubby, long beared little man.

Amanda looked horrified and began muttering upon seeing their faces. As I approached her to ask what was wrong I caught a bit of her muttering "No it can't be, it isn't, no no no.'' she then hurried over to the fridge, grabbed the doctor's number and the home phone off the counter, she then raced upstairs. Sighing deeply I followed her and caught her dialing the phone. "Amanda, what are you doing?" I asked "Calling the doctor, I _must _be overdosing on my medication. It apears i'm hallucinating." she said dryly "Amanda Li Vallie, what are you talking about?! There is nothing wrong! Everythings fine, we'd _know _if you were hallucinating." I exclaimed. "Those men-" she began but was cut off by me "Amanda thats cold, really cold." I said shaking my head in exasperation, "Here let me show you." she growled crawling under her bed.

She returned with a tired DVD case "You remember a few years ago when we went to Blockbuster and I picked out this movie?" "Um, yeah." I said (I recalled her watching it alone in her room then raving on about how awesome it was for a month) "Well I liked it so much that I cycled over there on day, rented it and never gave it back." before I could rebuke her she continued, "Look closely at these people on the cover. Do they look familiar?" she asked. Without arguing I looked at the men on the coverand was horrified by what I saw. "Amanda, these people are the same ones standing in our living room! Do you mean to tell me that they actually exist?!"

"It appears so." She muttered, looking quite weary. Before I could bombard her with questions she cut me off, "Look I don't know okay! Lets just go downstairs and help Julie and Violet with them." She snapped, without much further ado, we headed downstairs. When we entered the living room I noticed that the old man and Julie were deep in conversation, I even caught Julie saying "well thats a relief." just then the old man stood up. "May I have everybody's attention please¿" everyone looked at him "As you seven can tell, we are in a different world. I have been here before, and you all probably don't know that the birch tree outside is a portal from here to Middle Earth." He then sat back down while the others began whispering excitedly. "You will not mind if we stay here a little longer, will you?" the old dude asked Julie "We won't mind, we can use some company." She answered, but she gave me a look that said _yeah, some company but not THIS much._ "Then it is settled," the old man addressed to everyone "we stay." "Thank god it's Friday." Julie muttered to me on her way to the kitchen.

**I am soooo sorry I haven't updated in so long! I am the worst when it comes to that! I thought of a new story as soon as I'm finished with one of mine, it's called: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE TOYBOX. Any ideas? Also the first peeps to name where the upside down question mark is will get a little treat! Chiao!**

**~I luvz cheese-its**


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